MY:VIEW London Fashion Week Days 2 & 3

I really intended to do a post everyday about LFW, but yesterday the weather in Cape Town was beautiful, so I spent the day at the beach, and blogging was the last thing on my mind!  I watched most of the shows last night, so thought I’d do a round up of days 2 and 3 together.  Warning, this is quite image heavy, as day 3 had the BEST shows!!

Day 2

I’m not normally a fan of Clements Ribeiro, but I really liked this collection. Checks and tartan have appeared in a number of shows so I can see this being picked up heavily by the high street.  It was a very ladylike collection, with longer hems and a lot of florals, but even though this is SO not my style, I really liked it.  Ice blue also appeared again, as on day 1 so I think everyone will be wearing this in SS13 (maybe not me though, as wearing blue makes me look dead …… I’ll stick to the orange that was everywhere!).

House of Holland is always a fun show to watch, although to me this was not as bright and loud as usual, but still lovely.  Henry Holland is from my neck of the woods in the north of England, so maybe I’m biased!  He too showcased checks, and a lot of print mixing with florals, so I can see these trends continuing, which might save everyone money by retaining this seasons wardrobe! I'm particularly loving this biker jacket, and am currently trying to work out if this could be a DIY!

 

 

Moschino Cheap and Chic showed paisley like PPQ, and had their signature of bright block colours, which muted to pastels through the show. Pineapple print was shown on both clothes and accessories, not something I would wear, but its certainly fun, which is the ethos of this brand!

 

Day 3 was amazing!!  I literally could have blogged every designer who showed, but these are my favourites (and there’s quite a few!)

I’m quite biased when it comes to Topshop Unique as my old flatmate at uni is one of the buyers, and it’s a show I normally go to.  I’ve read some really mixed reviews about this, some saying its boring and too far removed from the usual Topshop look, some saying its grown up and a more confident Topshop.  To me Unique and Boutique are the more fashion Topshop brands, and are designed for an older market (teenagers could not afford the prices for a start), but I can see some of these elements being used in the main line, and being easily adoptable.  The monochrome section at the start showed checks again, with the whole collection being wearable modern tailoring, pencil skirts, billowing oversized tunics, asymmetric hem skirts, slim one shoulder dresses, and sports luxe looks with sweatshirts and sequins.  I loved the mix of textures, and the mix of sheer v opaque, and thought the collection was really wearable, it did lack the usual Topshop fun element.  However, this sweatshirt is something I’ll definitely be having in my wardrobe.

 

Matthew Williamson’s show was Indian inspired and a homage to the past 15 years of his work.  As per usual, the colours were bright and bold, and there was a real sense of the exotic in the beautiful hot pink merged with turquoise on cigarette pants and jackets, the rainbow dip-dye in violet, magenta and yellow and the clashing pink, orange and red bands on jacquard jackets and shorts.  To me, what Matthew Williamson does best is his eveningwear, and this collection didn’t disappoint.  He also showcased a shoe line for the 1^st time – definitely one to covet!

 

 

Vivienne Westwood’s political statements were polar opposites to the 50s housewife style collection she showed, which was very feminine and quite conservative in parts, with lots of florals and longer hemlines (not counting the sequin playsuit, showing the models butt!).  I’m not sure the make up trends here will catch on (entirely green or pink faces!), but I loved the footwear, particularly the update of her famous pirate boots which are still my favourite pair of shoes ever!  I will definitely be saving to buy these (or hoping Santa brings them!)

 

 

I love Preen as much as I love PPQ, so was really excited about this show.  Patchwork dresses and trouser suits were made of python, shiny patches and traditional suit fabrics.  Slashed pencil skirts with unusual shapes were layered over long contrasting shirts.  I loved the skirt shapes so much I can see some DIY coming on!

 

Swedish label Acne is another I love and I loved this collection! The green and orange used throughout were gorgeous, and I loved the use of straps and buckles cut graphic horizontals across calves, waists, hips, thighs and arms, it reminded me of my favourite All Saints jacket (shown here), which I love for its bondage/asylum-like straight jacket qualities!  This oragne jumper has a similar shape to the sweatshirt I love at Topshop Unique, so I'll definitely be lookig out for this.

 

Marios Schwab was my show of the day, and I seriously want everything which went down the runway!  Blue and orange featured again (definitely the trend colours of SS13), and I loved the fringing and leather.  The clever tailoring and cutting meant that heavy leathers looked soft, tightly pleated into modern cocktail dresses and there was an absolutely amazing fringed trench coat. It was navaho meets aztec meets mad max, it shouldn’t work but I loved it!!

With designers such as Mulberry, Erdem, Giles and Christopher Kane still to show, I think this is hotting up to be another amazing LFW, and I can't wait to see aht comes next!

All images from www.londonfashionweek.co.uk unless otherwise stated on images